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Susan PoserBiography

UIC Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

Dr. Susan Poser is the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), where she also serves at the Chief Operating Officer. In this role, Dr. Poser is responsible for the university’s academic enterprise, including the planning, implementation, and assessment of UIC’s academic programs. The Deans of nine colleges as well as the Vice Provosts for Faculty Affairs, Undergraduate Affairs, Global Engagement, Diversity, Information Technology, and Enrollment Management report to Dr. Poser.

Dr. Poser grew up in New York City. She received her bachelors degree with honors in Ancient Greek and Political Science from Swarthmore College, and her J.D. (Order of the Coif) and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. After law school, Dr. Poser served as a law clerk to Chief Judge Dolores K. Sloviter of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia, after which she practiced law and was the Zicklin Fellow in Ethics at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Poser’s academic career prior to the University of Illinois was at the University of Nebraska, first as a member of the law faculty and director of the Robert J. Kutak Center for the Teaching and Study of Applied Ethics, then as the Chief of Staff and Associate to the Chancellor, and finally as Dean of the College of Law. During her tenure as dean, she internationalized parts of the law school curriculum and created an entrepreneurship legal clinic. She raised over 22 million dollars, primarily for student scholarships and capital projects. Over the six year of her deanship, the University of Nebraska College of Law moved up more than 35 points in the US News & World Report rankings.

Dr. Poser’s scholarship is primarily in the areas of tort law and legal ethics, with a focus on multijurisdictional and multidisciplinary practice. She has written and spoken widely on these issues. In 2003, she served as the Reporter to the Nebraska State Bar Association Committee that proposed the adoption of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct to the Nebraska Supreme Court. She has published articles on Tort law and participated in interdisciplinary empirical research and scholarship on the effects of Tort rules.

Dr. Poser received the Law College Distinguished Teacher award in 2004. In 2006, she received the Shining Light Award from the Nebraska State Bar Foundation for outstanding service, and in 2011, she was named the Outstanding Contributor to Women in the Law by the Nebraska State Bar Association.

Dr. Poser has served as a member of the board of several non-profits, and in volunteer leadership positions at the American Bar Association Section on Legal Education and Association of American Law Schools. She was recently invited to be a member of the International Women’s Forum and the Economic Club of Chicago.